Small-town success: Aurora native leads Monmouth back to Division III playoffs
According to someone who made the transition, it takes a unique personality to want to move from the Chicago suburbs to a small town in Western Illinois like Monmouth.
Aurora native Chad Braun pulled it off. He's been coaching at Monmouth College for 25 years, the past 10 as head coach.
“I love being in a small town,” Braun said in a phone interview. “It probably fits me and my personality a little bit better. I like to fish. Slower pace of life here, cost of living's a little cheaper. I really enjoy being down here.
“I like to go back and visit Aurora, but I don't miss Aurora, to be honest.”
Enough quality football players found their way to Monmouth this year to produce an 8-1 record. The Scots have already clinched the Midwest Conference title with one game left to play and will be making their first trip to the Division III playoffs since 2019.
It's been done mostly by players from downstate. Monmouth has a few contributors from the suburbs but not many. Defensive lineman Anthony Cikauskas (Oswego) leads the team in sacks and tackles for loss. The top rusher is Nate Wrublik (Lemont).
“I was able to get (Wrublik) here because we had the fishing thing in common,” said Braun, an alum of Aurora Central Catholic.
Braun went to Illinois College, then started coaching at Jacksonville High School. So that's how he got on the small-town path leading him to Monmouth, a town of 9,000 that sits roughly 15 miles west of Galesburg.
Braun said he'd like to recruit more players from the suburbs, but he knows not everyone embraces small-town living.
“It's got to be the right fit,” he said. “We want to and we try to (recruit the suburbs). When you grow up in the Chicago area where you have everything that's convenient, within five minutes of your house, it's a little different down here. We're a small town, small school. In terms of enrollment, we're around 800 students. So it's got to be the right fit for a Chicago kid.
“It's got to be someone similar to me, that just loves football, doesn't mind being in a small town and enjoys the other things that come with being down here.”
Monmouth's lone loss was in the season opener to No. 6 Wartburg, Iowa. The showdown for first place in conference was Nov. 1 at the University of Chicago, and the Scots rolled to a 29-0 victory.
Monmouth is No. 1 in the country in total defense and passing defense, No. 2 in scoring defense behind top-ranked North Central.
“It's a really deep, talented football team,” Braun said. “We were 7-7 in the third quarter against Wartburg, ended up losing 21-7, but saw a lot of great things out of our team. After Week 1 we knew we were super physical.”
Wheaton awaits good news
Selection Sunday in Division III football is a few days away. Wheaton seems to be in good shape to make the 40-team field but still has bad memories of getting left out last season.
“Everybody's a little more restless on account of what the experience was last year,” Thunder coach Jesse Scott said. “But it seems like the numbers indicate we're in a far more favorable spot this year.”
No one can complain about Wheaton's strength of schedule. The CCIW may not be deep from top to bottom, but Wheaton has played the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in Division III — conference rival North Central and Mount Union. The Thunder made the trip to Ohio for the nonconference season opener and lost to the Raiders 37-29.
That game came about because Mount Union coach Geoff Dartt was a Wheaton assistant from 2008-12. Not only did he work with Scott, the two were roommates for two years.
“We've really tried to put an emphasis on playing really good people on our nonconference slate,” Scott said. “Programmatically, we want to go from being a really good team to being among the very best, and it seems like a prudent thing to play in those sort of games to get there.”
A strong trait of this Thunder team is hometown connections. The passing leader is quarterback Mark Forcucci (Wheaton North), leading rusher is Matt Crider (Wheaton Warrenville South) and the top receiver is Seth Kortenhoeven (Wheaton North). On defense the sack leader is Peter Johanik (Wheaton Academy), while Colin Moore (Wheaton Warrenville South) leads the team with 5 interceptions.
In theory this group should be well-prepared for the playoffs after facing both of last year's national championship participants.
“I think being stressed as a team, experiencing adversity as a team, these are things we talk about with our players that lead to opportunity for serious growth and real learning,” Scott said. “We've learned a lot about ourselves, and I think we're a better team as a result of playing in those games.”
Spartan starter
There are now three Big Ten starting quarterbacks from the suburbs. In addition to Iowa's Mark Gronowski (Neuqua Valley) and Rutgers' Athan Kaliakmanis (Antioch), Alessio Milivojevic (St. Francis) has taken over the lead role at Michigan State.
In his first start last weekend at Minnesota, the redshirt freshman completed 20 of 28 passes for 311 yards in an overtime loss. He was also efficient in several relief appearances this season.
At this point MSU has not named a starter for Saturday's game against Penn State. One downside to Milivojevic's first start was getting sacked seven times, which might have the Spartans thinking about going back to Aidan Chiles.